Anita Busch read a statement to Pellicano during the sentencing. Although portions of her statement have been quoted in a couple of stories, some of the quotations have been inaccurate, and none of them has been complete. Below is Busch’s complete statement, which she has confirmed to me is exactly how she said it in court.

I was touched by how harrowing the experience was for her, and how little support she received from people at the L.A. Times, many of whom treated her very real nightmare as a joke. The most moving moment to me was reading Busch describe how agonizing it was just to start her car . . . after receiving credible threats that her car would be blown up: “[A]fter a night of nightmares, I would close my eyes and just scream really loud as I turned the key to the ignition. And when I didn’t blow up, I’d wipe my eyes and go onto work at the L.A. Times and face the snickers from the disbelievers.”

Busch also told Pellicano: “The day you were arrested, that’s when the cover-up began at my newspaper.” At that point, Pellicano started talking with his lawyers, ignoring her. Busch paused and waited until they stopped talking.

Until Pellicano paid attention.

Hearing that story, my reaction was: he wasn’t in control. She was.

That’s a great story.

Ms. Busch’s statement follows:

I want to thank Judge Fischer for her patience and wisdom during this trial and thank you to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Mr. Pellicano, after you and your employers relentlessly attacked all of us and got caught after years of doing this to others, you and your lawyers just kept attacking. You attacked the FBI, the search warrant, a potential witness, the veracity of your victims, launched personal attacks on the lead FBI agent on the case and U.S. Attorney, went after the jury and then the verdict itself.

And you did most all of it through the Los Angeles Times where I unfortunately found out while working there that you had a trusted relationship with the lawyer advising me and one of the reporters that they had covering this criminal case.

In the sentencing memorandum you talk about how your life is ruined. Yes, well, YOU made that choice. None of your victims had a choice. You could have helped put these sociopaths with money behind bars, but to this day, you show contempt for this court and the law.

You have yet to take responsibility for your actions.

It was revealed only two weeks ago that an FBI agent named Mark Rossini pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining documents that were then used by your lawyer.

So every day you prove that you ran a criminal conspiracy and a criminal enterprise.

Your co-conspirator Mr. Kachikian aided and abetted you so that my computer was hacked into and 18 years of my musical compositions – which I considered my life’s work – were destroyed.

When Mr. Turner and other co-conspirators at the phone company helped you tap my phones, you not only violated my privacy and that of my family and friends, but you violated the privacy of a journalist AND her sources, undermining the very fundamentals of my profession. This attack was also on journalism and a newspaper’s ability to gather the news.

By carrying out these crimes, you not only hurt me, you hurt my elderly parents, my brothers and sisters and my friends.

After these threats, I was afraid to come and go from my house. I was afraid to sit in my car for even a moment out in the street for fear that a car would speed up on me again, block me in and this time I WOULD be killed. And that was a Catch-22 because I was ALSO petrified to turn over the engine of my car for fear that it would blow up.

So, I would sit there and cry and pray and beg, “Please God, I want to live.”

Or some days, after a night of nightmares, I would close my eyes and just scream really loud as I turned the key to the ignition. And when I didn’t blow up, I’d wipe my eyes and go onto work at the L.A. Times and face the snickers from the disbelievers.

You and your employers not only used fear and intimidation, but you made sure people – your targets – were smeared in the press. And you and your clients used any means at your disposal to destroy people’s employment. And you guys did it many times over many years. When it was my turn how very convenient it was for you that you already had long established relationships inside my employer.

The day after the first threat, the lawyer at the L.A. Times, Karlene Goller, wanted YOU on board to help because as she said, “He’s done work for us in the past and he’s done well by us.” The editor told her no, but she did it anyway. Without my knowledge or the knowledge of law enforcement, she had reporter Chuck Philips call you about my case. Philips had a longtime relationship with you as a news source and had worked for years alongside Karlene’s husband.

I was new to the paper, but you weren’t. And you USED the relationships you had there against me. You made sure my newspaper didn’t believe me so behind the scenes you could ruin my employment just like you and your clients did to other victims.

The day you were arrested, that’s when the cover-up began at my newspaper. To this day their own reporters, editors and readers don’t know the truth. And while you and your lawyers cried crocodile tears about media leaks, Philips – a reporter you helped for years – wrote story after story against the government’s case. Information FED to him by your defense team. And because the men whose job it was to put an end to your criminal activity were now your targets – Dan Saunders and Stan Ornellas – your pal Philips wrote stories smearing their integrity.

And, of course, those stories were then approved by the same newspaper lawyer who looked to you for help. And this is just one example of how you and your clients used the media as a weapon.

Your convicted co-conspirator, Mr. Kachikian, even worked for the L.A. Times.

You reached inside the phone company, the LAPD, the Beverly Hills Police Department, the FBI … AND this city’s largest newspaper.

So, I was on my own. And I was scared. I thought it was just a matter of time before I was going to be killed. I was scared to have any family or friends around me because I was afraid that they themselves might get hurt. And I struggled. I struggled hard to work as a journalist while battling constant fear … Journalism was something I loved and what I lived for. But it became impossible for me to continue on as a journalist. My sources were afraid to talk to me on the phone. It wasn’t long before everything was gone.

I no longer had my career. I no longer had my peace of mind. My income was dwindling. My life savings was disappearing. My health went downhill. I didn’t even have my music. And I no longer had passion or faith in anything.

It was death by a thousand cuts … and the cuts were deep and hard. I didn’t deserve it.

I remember sitting alone one night, trying to think of something – anything – good that had come out of this. I realized that the only hope I had left was in a dogged, and thank God ethical, FBI agent named Stan Ornellas who I knew was out there every day working to try to put an end to this kind of domestic terrorism. Which is what it was.

I am thankful beyond words to these men and women who worked this case because they kept what happened to me from happening to anyone else.

Now, Mr. Pellicano, you have always spoken about a sense of honor. I understand. You know I know many of your former clients. Most of the ones I knew were never your friends and they were certainly never your family.

These people don’t care about the kind of healthcare you get on the inside, the lousy razors that nick your face, the sandpaper for toilet paper, the mystery meat and candy bars from the vending machine.

They don’t care that you won’t be there to hold your own mother’s hand when she gets sick or when she passes away.

Where is the honor in that?

You won’t be there because of Michael Ovitz.

Your sense of honor is not wrong, Mr. Pellicano. It is misplaced.

To you and your wealthy clients, this was about winning – destroying our lives – at any cost. Well, look at the cost … here in the courtroom today … look into the faces of the ones you love.

You threw away your role as son to your mother and father to your children.

For money.

Sometimes money costs too much.

For what you have done to all of us and to your own flesh and blood, all I can say is that I fear for your soul when I think that God is just.

Thank you, your honor.

For more background on the way Busch was treated by the people at the L.A Times, read my previous posts here and here.

P.S. The initial L.A. Times story on the sentencing doesn’t report any of Busch’s attacks on the newspaper. It will be interesting to see whether the paper ever mentions it.

It is, after all, news.

UPDATE: The story has now been rewritten, in classic L.A. Times style: at the same Web address, wiping out the old version entirely, without any notification to the reader. (I have saved the previous version.) Here’s what the latest version of the story says about Busch’s sentencing statement:

Pellicano’s troubles began in 2002, when a reporter who wrote negative articles about former Hollywood super agent Michael Ovitz went to authorities after she found a dead fish, a rose and a note saying “Stop” inside the smashed windshield of her car.

The reporter, Anita Busch, told the judge Monday that Pellicano’s intimidation and wiretapping were like “death by a thousand cuts.”

Yes, and Busch believes the L.A. Times shared some culpability for at least part of the misery she endured. The L.A. Times doesn’t tell you that.

64 Responses to “Pellicano Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison; Read Anita Busch’s Sentencing Statement, Including Her Commentary on the Los Angeles Times”

She did not even begin to lay into the LAT the way that they deserve.

Just another example of how the LAT is fatally compromised in all aspects of the news that they are supposed to be covering. And how their incompetence, corruption and stupidity harms their customers, their employees and their stockholders.

Nice Scoop Patterico. You’ve done a really good job with this story from day 1. I live near Chicago so we got pretty much nada re: this here, where everything as of late has been revolving around Blago. Maybe Blago will get 15 years too.

Thanks very much. There are times I wonder why I bother to try to do any original reporting; it so often seems like that sort of thing is precisely what interests people the least. You’d think that giving people something they *can’t* get anywhere else would generate interest, but the opposite seems to be the case more often than not.

So it means a lot when someone like you lets me know that you appreciate it.

The way the L.A. Times treated Busch is actually a great story; the extra links I give above give some hint of that. But I fear that I lack the ability to tell it right because I’m too busy with other things in my life.

Wow. I’ve heard plenty of witness statements during my years in court, but none as powerful and eloquent as hers. Truly a classic statement for victim-witness impact. Not that it will be acknowledged by the LAT. . . .

P.S. The initial L.A. Times story on the sentencing doesn’t report any of Busch’s attacks on the newspaper. It will be interesting to see whether the paper ever mentions it.

Is this another example of your deadpan understatement, Patterico? Here’s how her newspaper talks about her in the story you linked:

Pellicano’s troubles began in 2002, when a reporter who wrote negative articles about former Hollywood super agent Michael Ovitz went to authorities after she found a dead fish, a rose and a note saying “Stop” inside the smashed windshield of her car.

Congratulations, PP.
Your dogged determination in the face of an opponent who buys ink by the barrel is a wonderful achievement in the battle to bring responsibility to journalism, and journalism to the City of Angels.
Hopefully, the remaining powers at the LAT will see that they need to become journalists again, and stop being power-brokers.

You threw away your role as son to your mother and father to your children.

For money.

Ms. Busch’s statement in its entirety is devastating, particularly this. I can’t help but wonder if her words penetrated him at all.

Patterico, I was one of those readers initially not interested in this story but continued to faithfully read each post and found it was compelling and insightful. No one else could provide such an analysis and give the layman such a knowledgeable view.

Have you heard any feedback from LAT staff who support your work and whether Ms. Busch will be pursuing a civil suit, per #11′s comment?

Pellicano’s troubles began in 2002, when a reporter who wrote negative articles about former Hollywood super agent Michael Ovitz went to authorities after she found a dead fish, a rose and a note saying “Stop” inside the smashed windshield of her car.

I agree with nk that the choice of words seems slanted to me:

“Pellicano’s troubles” suggests Pellicano has been the victim of some accidental misfortune. Why not say “Pellicano’s brush with the law” or “Pellicano’s legal problems”?

“… a reporter who wrote negative articles …” This doesn’t even name Busch so we can’t identify with her and her claims are immediately less trustworthy. And “negative articles” conveys more cause for suspicion. Why not say “probing articles” or “exposes”?

“… about former Hollywood super agent Michael Ovitz …” Hmmm. I doubt readers believe an unnamed reporter over a Hollywood super agent but that was the point, wasn’t it?

“… a dead fish, a rose and a note saying “Stop” inside the smashed windshield of her car.” Sounds like the Sopranos but no one believes that stuff, do they?

The personal courage displayed by Anita Busch over nearly seven years of hell is nothing short of heroic.

Consider the methods and damage inflicted by Pellicano on victims. It is literally a form of domestic terrorism even G.Gordon Liddy could admire.

Have you ever been wiretapped? Had your phones, computer, even your car bugged? Have you ever truly, actually, had your life threatened? For real? Just for doing your job? Have you ever lived in fear of harm coming to you, your kids, or friends, or colleagues or extended family at any time? Not for an hour, a day, a week, a month, but literally for years?

Have you ever had the routine of daily life shattered, your career smashed like a pane of glass; your savings drained; your privacy invaded– so deeply violated, penetrated and brutalized that it is as close to being physically raped as you’ll ever get? Have you??

And your employer, ‘a great metropolitan newspaper,’ (to borrow a well-televised phrase), living on life support from old press clippings from the last century; the people you invest your time, skills and trust with; expect professional support from; all but abandon you when ask for help. Then exhibit qualified, fleeting support, evaporating daily and distancing itself at every opportunity. While at the same time, carefully concealing an association with the very person who shredded your life from the start? In short, not believing you while spinning support for him?

Have you ever lost your ability to sleep for months? Had your health decline to ruin and your core beliefs in the sanctity of your home destroyed? Or experienced the betrayal of the public trust by a bad cop illegally digging through your records? Or lost trust in simply talking on a telephone with a friend, or your sense of normalcy at going to the grocery store without fear of your car exploding with the turning of the ignition key? Of being threatened in a public place or feared being run down in the street?

Any one of these acts is traumatic in itself. And many of the victims terrorized by Pellicano’s ’services’ suffered one or all of these trauma— and more. Ms. Busch was subjected to most of this as well. She was a victim. And she is a survivor.

And why? Because a clique of wealthy Hollywood sociopaths, driven to settle petty scores over ego and money, hired a thuggish P.I. to do the dirty work for them. And an employer that left her twisting in the wind for doing her job. Indeed, the facts point to the Los Angeles Times actively working against her on the QT, hush-hush, supporting Pellicano through Philips’ stories and other internal mechanisms at that sorry waste of ink and pulp.

Every Pellicano victim over the years of this absurdly long case– and many of them are average citizens– will carry the scars for life. Even the convicted themselves. And for what? Money– and not very much at that in the grand scheme of things.

15 years for Pellicano seems light for a dim bulb who disgraced himself, his profession and his family. 15 years for a low watt intellect too stupid to finger the SOBs who hired him to save his own ass, isn’t nearly long enough.

Time served and the rest of his days in prison is just the down payment on an eternity in Hell. And the Tinseltown garbage –individuals and corporate media both- the ‘clients’ who hired, fawned, fussed over and funded him; used him to play their expensive, high-school-with-money-games, will be there with him in the end.

They’ve been exposed. Thanks to law enforcement, Ms. Busch and her devotion to truth.

And the Busch-Philips-Pellicano episode is a piece that fits into a larger, more disturbing picture. It’s yet another one of a growing list of ethically embarassing and questional incidents at the Los Angeles Times. It’s clearly a dying tomb.

Kudos to Anita Busch for her tenacity, integrity and courage. Truly a first class package in a bulk rate world.

Mr. Frey does yeoman’s work taking on and exposing the underbelly of scandal, corruption and incompetence emanating from the LA Times and scumwads such as Pellicano.
He may never get the recognition he deserves, but I’d vote him a Pulitzer for his body of investigative work. Caroline Kennedy wants to be appointed US Senator from NY. I guess she feels it is warranted because the Kennedys are liberal icons. As a teen I recall reading her daddy’s Pulitzer prize winning book Profiles In Courage. A big award for what? Researching biographies of various historical figures?
The LA Times should reward Mr. Frey for exposing their own failings. The dude has a full time legal career and makes many of the LA Times “reporters” look like elementary school reporters.
One might hope that Pellicano is exposed to some degree of fear in prison for the hell he put citizens like Ms. Busch through. And why not forfeit his wealth to the victims?

Companeros! I was very disappointed to read your criticisms of our glorious printed vanguard of truth (aka the LA Times). It has progressed so much since the bad old days of it’s capitalist imperialist publisher. Why, today the brave comrade journos are braving war and bankruptcy!

That comment may deserve elevation into its own post. It’s one of the best comments I’ve seen in a long time, and really shows a deep understanding of this case and why what Pellicano did was so awful and invasive.

[...] of domestic terror. She has been through hell and back, beleive me. Here’s a link to Anita’s full statement in court today. Please take time to read it, its short. It will give you a great idea of how [...]

Via the ping in #39 I found this May 15, 2008 article by Diane Dimond that nicely supplements the two links I give in the post regarding the background. I see Ms. Dimond wrote her piece around the same time I wrote mine. We both put together accounts of how The Times treated Busch in the aftermath of the threats. Dimond also made a great effort to contact people at the L.A. Times; their reactions are interesting.

I had not seen Dimond’s piece before tonight, but it’s very good and I recommend it.

In cases where Dimond’s account overlaps with mine, note the consistency with which Ms. Busch tells the tale. If you read my posts, and then read Ms. Dimond’s, you’ll see what I mean.

jcurtis, I fail to see how this is a conservative/liberal issue. Admittedly, the L.A. Birdcage Liner is one of the lowest of the Liberal propaganda machines, but neither Ms. Busch’s nor Mr. Pellicano’s politics were at issue here.

DCSCA SAID:Have you ever been wiretapped? Had your phones, computer, even your car bugged? Have you ever truly, actually, had your life threatened? For real? Just for doing your job? Have you ever lived in fear of harm coming to you, your kids, or friends, or colleagues or extended family at any time? Not for an hour, a day, a week, a month, but literally for years?

Cases with facts like like this occur every day, except this one has has a one-out-of-a-million ending to the point it creates a sense of false hope. More often than not, when things like this occur, everyone joins-in on the scam like a pack of wolves, until the victim expires by the effects of anti-psychotic drugs, stress related cancer, suicide, etc.

Look at clowns like Scott Jacobs on the Post:
Have Bailout Opponents Considered the Ramifications of Their Opposition?

Scott Jacobs repeatedly torments a savant autistic woman (yogi bear) with a J.D. MBA, struggling to be a member of the CA State Bar, yet is not accepted solely b/c of her autism, to the extent Jacobs accuses her of having sex with her disability service horse.

Jacobs and even Patterico have frequently mocked her for having the courage to take the bar exam 4 times until she finally passed.

Patterico SAID:Jacobs and even Patterico have frequently mocked her for having the courage to take the bar exam 4 times until she finally passed.

Patterico, are you for real? have you seen the crap these perverts have said about her when she wasn’t even posting? It’s bad enough you allowed your other chum “drumwaster” refer to us as “goat#uckers” (his version included the (f)).

This is your property, your board, and you allow/encourage things to be said against vulnerable disabled people that are far more out-of-line than anything this character “Anthony Pellicano” pulled off. Can you grasp the concept of incitement counselor?

You said I did something that I didn’t do. That I never even came close to doing. Your statement was made up. A fabrication. A flat falsehood.

I’m going to give you one chance to take it back. If you don’t retract your false assertion in your next comment, you are banned.

I don’t want to hear anything about what you claim I have “encouraged” on a site where I don’t even have time to read all the comments, and where I usually tune out whenever you appear.

Here is what I want to hear you say, clearly: “I retract my false allegation that Patterico mocked an autistic person for having the courage to take the bar exam 4 times.” I have never once, remotely, said or done anything like that. It is a 100% false assertion on your part. Counselor.

Note: I’ve never even argued with you once, that I recall. I haven’t ever addressed this other commenter, ever, that I recall. I don’t have anything against you at all, that I recall. I don’t recall having any interaction with you on any comment thread.

I am dimly aware that you and she and some regular commenters here have fought. I have never been particularly been interested in why.

None of that gives you the right to make false claims about me. I won’t tolerate it and you will take it back or lose your commenting privileges.

Also, I see that when you say I “allowed” a commenter to use a profane word, that what really happened was that I threatened to ban him.

And just below that, you swore you’d never come back if I didn’t immediately ban him. And I didn’t, because he promised to do better. (As I recall, he didn’t end up doing better after all, and was eventually banned. Do you see him commenting now? No. You don’t.)

Looks like you didn’t do what you swore to do, and are now telling multiple falsehoods about me.

You know what? Forget giving you a chance to retract. You’re gone. If you can’t keep your word, I’ll keep it for you.

The Times obscene performance in the Pellicano case is similar to that of its coverage of the Fleishman Hillard scandal, which this blog examined a few months ago. Goller was involved in that debacle, too. Former editors, one of them Gollers’ best friend, were used as anonymous sources and its coverage of the trial was slanted to hide its unethical, corrupt behavior.

Yet another argument for letting the Times day. A useless newspaper that is unethical, doesn’t understand its readership or community, can’t cover the businesses it is supposed to, and even now doesn’t get it – or anything.

We in LA need to stop worrying about the presumed “catastrophe” losing the LAT would be. Nothing of the sort. The only way we can hope to get a real newspaper is to see the unreal one we’ve got vanish.

Talk about your deaths of a thousands cuts. I hope this one happens sooner, rather than later – so we all can get started creating something that isn’t owned by grifters, managed by carpetbaggers and cowards, and staffed by chimps, dinosaurs, and little white mice.

As a victim of Pellicano (mine was a story that did not make the trail), I can only emphasize to the readers of this blog how devastating it was (is) to live with the death threats, the economic and social pressures imposed, the ambivalence of authorities, etc. This trial was underreported, and the prosecution narrow, because powerful interests were best served by having the matter minimized–it would blow peoples’ minds to know what really goes on dail–still–in LA and elsewhere.

I can’t help but wonder if Anita Busch’s extraordinary statement might well have had some effect on Pellicano’s sentence. Without her clear and personal description of the suffering inflicted on her by Pellicano perhaps he may have received less time.

[...] Busch received at the hands of that lawyer and others at the paper. I also published Busch’s eye-opening sentencing statement after Pellicano’s wiretapping trial, as well as the L.A. Times’s response, which I [...]